There were three. One. Two. Three. Three gunshot wounds on his back that were leaking a hell of a lot of blood. Marie was feeling incredibly nauseous. There was just too much blood. Logan shouldn’t have been bleeding like that. He was supposed to heal from anything right away.
“Please don’t do this t’ me, Logan,” Marie whimpered as she removed the blanket from about her shoulders. “Ah have absolutely no idea who t’ take care o’ ya. Ah’ve never had t’ take care o’ a gunshot wound.”
Pressing the blanket to Logan’s bloodied back, Marie tried her best to stop the flow of blood. There was no way that she would be able to stand it if Logan slowly bled to death in front of her. Marie had no actual medical training and no idea how to keep Logan from bleeding all over. Tears began blurring her vision as the once white blanket began to turn an awful crimson.
“Yer a stupid, stupid man, Logan. Ah told ya not t’ touch me. Sure Ah might not have actually said it, but talkin’ was kinda hard then,” Marie sobbed, keeping her voice down in case the soldiers got too close.
There was no response from Logan, but Marie wasn’t expecting one.
“Why would ya risk yer life fer me? Ah’m really not worth it, Logan. Ya coulda been long gone if ya hadn’t come fer me. Ya’d be somewhere safer than this an’ ya sure as hell wouldn’t be o’ risk o’ bleedin’ t’ death,” Marie whispered, scrubbing the tears from her cheeks with the back of her hand. As she went to go place it next to her other one on Logan’s back, Marie caught sight of the bright red blood that stained her fingers.
Logan’s blood.
“Oh Gawd....” Marie moaned as she realized that she now most likely had Logan’s blood smeared across her cheeks.
Unable to think of anything else to do for him, Marie simply kept her hands on Logan’s back, applying constant pressure to the wounds.
“Ya’d better not die on me, Logan. ‘Cause Ah just won’t let ya,” Marie told him, speaking softly as she lovingly stroked her fingers through his hair. “Ya saved mah life so now Ah’m gonna save yers. Ah may not know just how Ah’m gonna do that yet, but Ah am. Yer gonna get better then the two o’ us are gonna get as far away from here as possible.”
This silent Logan was really starting to freak Marie out. Even when they had been cutting into him, Logan would talk to her. On the days that they would gag him, it was more like muffled growls, but Logan was always very vocal. Seeing him so silent was just something that Marie was not used to seeing.
Taking several deep breaths, Marie steeled herself to peek under the blanket to see how much Logan was still bleeding. If she was lucky, his healing factor would have kicked in and it would be just a matter of getting him conscious.
Marie could have screamed when she saw nothing but reddened patches of scar tissue where the bullets had entered Logan’s back. Instead, she just let out a loud sight and leaned over to press a kiss to the back of Logan’s head, his hair protecting him from her lethal touch.
“Looks like Ah just gotta wait fer ya t’ wake up,” Marie murmured, still grinning.
It took a little bit of struggling, but Marie was eventually able to get Logan’s hulking form in a more comfortable position. The fact that she could only touch him with the blanket made it even more difficult. Since all of the damage had been done to his back, Marie kept him lying on his stomach. Since she had nothing to use as a pillow, Marie carefully arranged Logan’s arms so that they were crossed under his head and acted as a pillow of sorts. Marie would have used the blanket, but she wanted to keep him covered with it.
The blanket itself made Marie want to throw up. Parts of it were literally soaked with Logan’s blood. Healing factor or not, it wasn’t good for Logan to have lost that much blood.
There was nothing she could do, though. It wasn’t like she could give him a blood transfusion. All that Marie could do was make Logan comfortable and hope for the best. If she was lucky, Logan would be awake by morning.
“Ah hope ya’ll be all right,” Marie whispered almost silently as she stretched out next to Logan on the floor of the cave. It was uncomfortable and cold, but Marie didn’t really care.
She was free.
For the first time in many long weeks, Marie was actually breathing fresh air. She was outside and free from those sadistic doctors.
As soon as she let her body relax, Marie’s mind was overcome with all sorts of memories and sensations that weren’t her own.
There was a small farm with chickens running loose. The barn was red and vibrant. It couldn’t have been painted more than a year beforehand. The house was white. A picket fence lined the front of the yard. A tire hung from a tree by the side of the house. The sun was shining brightly, warming everything in sight. A slight breeze began to blow suddenly, disturbing the utter stillness that had existed before.
“Get the fuck outta here, you freak!” an angry voice shouted suddenly.
The picturesque farmyard suddenly turned into a dark, dingy bar. It was filled to capacity with rough necks who were all screaming and shouting, their breaths reeking of beer. In the centre of the bar stood a large cage. Two men were in the cage, almost appearing to be fighting for their lives. Both were covered in a myriad of bruises, blood leaking from a few rather angry looking gashes. Oddly enough, neither of them seemed to be in any real pain.
Victor.
That name popped into Marie’s mind quite suddenly. As it did, the image of a giant of a man with long blonde hair came into focus. He seemed almost feral, his eyes nothing but pools of blackness.
“You don’t really think that you can beat me, do you, runt?”
“Shut the fuck up, Creed, and fight.”
Creed.
That was Victor, too. The monster man.
Marie could feel her head beginning to pound as Logan’s memories flowed into her mind. He was creating a nook for himself in her subconscious and Marie found herself not minding in the least.
“I want to go into the alley,” a blue-eyed woman murmured, pressing herself up against Logan so that he could feel all her curves.
“Oh really? What what’s in the alley?”
“Me. You. My skirt around my waist and your pants around your ankles.”
Chuckling slightly, Logan allowed her to lead him from the bar they were in. His body was still covered with a fine sheen of sweat from all the fighting he had done so the cold night air hit him exceptionally hard.
“Come on, champ, let’s you and me get ourselves better aquatinted.”
Lust taking over his body, Logan pressed her up against the wall. He buried his fingers in her long blonde hair as he ravaged her mouth. Logan was just reaching for her insanely short skirt when he felt something hit him on the back of the head.
More and more blows continued to rain down on him. Struggling and fighting as much as he could, Logan still found himself sprawled on the ground. He weakly glanced up at the girl who hadn’t made a sound the entire time. She was staring down at him, a sadistic grin on her face.
“I wonder if that hurts, champ.”
“Welcome to the Weapon X project, Wolverine,” the same girl said when Logan regained consciousness. This time, though, her hair was tied back in a tight bun and she was dressed in more conservative clothes and a white doctor’s coat.
Marie struggled to bury the hateful memories away. She didn’t want to see anything bad happen to Logan. He was too good a person to be hurt in the countless ways they had hurt him.
To Marie’s complete surprise, the next thing she saw was herself. She was sitting crouched at the front of her clear prison, tears streaming down her cheeks. Marie could feel Logan’s emotions running through her. That was the first time he had noticed her. When she had cried while they cut into his abdominal cavity.
“Hey, kid. Why are you cryin’?” Logan asked her, his voice coming out as a harsh, pain-filled whisper.
“Ah’m cryin’ ‘cause they’re hurtin’ ya,” Marie whimpered, scrubbing at her cheek with one hand.
Logan frowned slightly, confused by her statement. “You shouldn’t cry for me, kid. I’m a bad person. I probably deserve this.”
Marie’s eyes got real wide then. “That’s not true! Yer not a bad person! Don’t ever think that ‘bout yerself! If ya do, they win! Don’t let them win!”
“All right, kid. I won’t let them win,” Logan promised her, amazed by her conviction.
That brought a smile to Marie’s face. “Thank ya. Mah name’s not ‘kid,’ by the way. It’s Marie.”
“Marie. That’s a real pretty name, Marie. I’m Logan.”
Marie could feel tears pricking the back of her eyes as she witnessed her and Logan’s meeting from his point of view. Even then he had been drawn to her.